PIA News Service - Wednesday, December 4, 2013

BUTUAN CITY, Dec. 4 (PIA) – Several private
individuals have recently approached the Philippine Information Agency (PIA)
Caraga and asked for assistance to deliver the tents as their donations that
would greatly help the homeless Typhoon Yolanda victims in Tacloban City.

“The homeless families in Tacloban City who will
benefit from this will be very happy. For those who shared their blessings for
our brethren, may you and your family receive a thousand fold of blessings
too,” Caga said.

Through the initiative of Mrs. Nora Rama and
Engr. Heddy Sumalpong, both involved in voluntary works of their private
organization, the cash donations from their colleagues and friends were
gathered to buy tents. The cash donation reached to more than P20,000.

Rama and Sumalpong, who are both good friends of
Dir. Caga relayed how they were both surprised when their friends/acquaintances
immediately decided to donate cash for the tents which will be used by the
typhoon Yolanda victims.

“We are touched by the immediate response of the
people we approached not only here in Butuan City but also those in other
municipalities. We were also glad to receive assistance from our friends in the
Philippine Army in Camp Bancasi through Sgt Arleen Mordeno, who also volunteered to provide us gasoline for the
vehicle that we used when we we’re gathering the cash donations from different
people and institution,” shared Rama.

“Extend our sympathy to typhoon Yolanda victims
in Tacloban and in other parts of the province of Leyte and Samar when you get
back there to continue your operations. We will continue to gather more so
others will also receive their own tent for their families,” added Sumalpong.

The PIA-Caraga team has left Butuan on November
22 for Tacloban City and arrived back in Butuan on Tuesday. The team will go
back again in Tacloban on Monday after attending another activity in Tagum City
this week.

BUTUAN CITY, Dec. 4 (PIA) - Representative
Lawrence Lemuel “Law” Fortun (1st District, Agusan del Norte) has put forward a
comprehensive grassroots-based congressional development agenda that is seen to
spur massive countryside development in a meeting with the newly-elected and
re-elected Punong Barangays in this city recently.

During the meeting, the solon’s performance in
the first 100 days in office was also reported highlighted by the filing of
several important bills that is aimed to protect the environment. Fortun said
that among the bills that he is hopeful that could be passed during his term is
HB 00861 entitled an Act to Prevent and Control Pollution from Ships, Provide
Penalties Therefor and for other Purposes which already hurdled committee deliberations
and will now be up on second reading during the plenary session.

Despite the absence of the priority development
assistance fund (PDAF), the solon was also able to source out funds that
provided medical and hospitalization assistance to indigent constituents,
scholarship grants to students enrolled at Caraga State University (CSU),
technical trainings under the Training for Works program of the Technical
Education and Skills Development (TESDA), and a comprehensive outreach program
offering medical, dental, optical, legal and job fair among others.

Fortun was also among the few legislators who
called for the abolition of the PDAF and pushed for a more accountable and
transparent system in implementing projects.

It was also in the meeting that Fortun revealed
that several infrastructure projects proposed by the different barangays as
well as the local government of Butuan are already included in the National
Budget for 2014.

The first term solon revealed that the first
district of Agusan del Norte that will have the biggest share of infrastructure
projects in the whole Caraga Region.
This is on top of the various barangay infrastructure projects to be
implemented in 2014.

The development of a housing project in Barangay
Baan Km. 3 amounting to P22 million is now included in the national budget.
There will also be a total of 171 classrooms that will be constructed in the
different elementary and secondary schools on top of the additional teaching
positions allocated for the district. Various irrigation projects are also in
the pipeline.

Also budgeted are the scholarship grants to poor
but deserving students as well as livelihood programs for the constituents.
Among the big ticket items that the solon was able to successfully include in
the national expenditures is the allocation of more than 700 hectares for
reforestation of the Taguibo watershed under the National Greening Program
(NGP) for 2014.

Butuan City Mayor Ferdinand M. Amante, Jr. also
graced the said meeting upon the invitation of the solon where the mayor
expressed his full support to Fortun’s congressional agenda. It was also during
that meeting that the two leaders re-assured the barangay leaders of their
strong partnership and commitment to pursue good governance to work for a
common development agenda for the city.

The formidable partnership of Amante and Fortun
has been one of the factors that stimulated growth in Butuan dating back during
the latter’s term as Vice Mayor of the city. Moreover, the strong partnership
is now again seen to play a vital role in the city’s development. (Lawig
Katawhan/PIA-Agusan del Norte)

6th CPDC Law Fortun Cup slated

BUTUAN CITY, Dec. 4 (PIA) - A total of 39 teams
have already confirmed to vie for the most coveted Law Fortun Cup as the 6th
Caraga Parliamentary Debate Championship (CPDC) will again be staged on
December 6-8, 2013 at the Saint Joseph Institute of Technology (SJIT) this
city.

A true battle of wits and eloquence, CPDC has
been one of the most anticipated debate competition annually organized by the
Caraga Parliamentary Debate Union in partnership with Rep. Lawrence Lemuel H.
Fortun. As of this writing, a total of 20 teams from the high school category
and 19 teams from the college category have already confirmed participation in
the competition which is considered the biggest so far in its sixth staging.

On its 6th leg, CPDC will tackle, on a most
opportune time, issues deeply knitted on environmental governance,
sustainability and resilience affecting the locality, the Filipino polity and
the global community.

In the college category, Father Saturnino Urios
University (Butuan City), CPDC’s previous champion, will once again face a
tough challenge from other schools such as Caraga State University (Butuan
City), Saint Joseph Institute of Technology (Butuan City), and Saint Paul
University Surigao (Surigao City) as it will try to defend its title.

The competition will take a more thrilling stage
in the high school category as constant rivals, Bayugan National Comprehensive
High School (Bayugan City) and Agusan National High School (Butuan City) will
face-off anew.

Registration starts at 8:00AM on December 6,
2013 to be followed by the opening program and debate briefing in the afternoon.
The championship round is slated on the third day, December 8, 2013. (Lawig
Katawha/PIA-Agusan del Norte)